Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Price Target Cut to $23.00

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) had its target price decreased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $24.00 to $23.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the mining company’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 26.06% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on CLF. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Wolfe Research reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $18.00 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cleveland-Cliffs has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.75.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE CLF opened at $18.25 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $20.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.99. The firm has a market cap of $8.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 2.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52-week low of $13.61 and a 52-week high of $22.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.34 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 8.69% and a net margin of 1.78%. The business’s revenue was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.11) EPS. Research analysts predict that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.66 EPS for the current year.

Cleveland-Cliffs announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, April 22nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the mining company to repurchase up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, Director Ron A. Bloom bought 25,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $20.24 per share, with a total value of $506,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 27,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $550,953.04. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total transaction of $132,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 90,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,841,834.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Ron A. Bloom bought 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were bought at an average price of $20.24 per share, for a total transaction of $506,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $550,953.04. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 221,066 shares of company stock valued at $4,464,688. Insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $117,585,000. Peconic Partners LLC purchased a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs during the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,370,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 154.2% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,586,472 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $40,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,961 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 240.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,988,689 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $31,083,000 after purchasing an additional 1,404,491 shares during the period. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd purchased a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,928,000. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Cleveland-Cliffs

Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest flat-rolled steel company and the largest iron ore pellet producer in North America. The company is vertically integrated from mining through iron making, steelmaking, rolling, finishing and downstream with hot and cold stamping of steel parts and components. The company was formerly known as Cliffs Natural Resources Inc and changed its name to Cleveland-Cliffs Inc in August 2017.